A Math Test For Uconn

June 24, 2004

University of Connecticut students will feel a tangible impact of the state's 2003 early-retirement program when they open their tuition bills for the coming year. Instead of a planned 6.5 percent tuition increase, trustees have approved an 8.7 percent increase. It will cost students an extra $306 to attend on top of the already expected $888 rise.

That represents a lot of hours working at summer jobs.

The additional $5 million, say UConn administrators, was necessary to hire faculty to replace the 82 professors who took advantage of the state's golden handshake. They are among 365 university employees to retire on the Storrs and branch campuses, including 98 professional staff, 104 maintenance workers and 81 others.

The university's dilemma -- sacrifice quality or raise tuition -- demonstrates the pitfalls of early-retirement programs. Those often mindless programs don't take into account which jobs are essential and which are expendable.

Under the state's budget-cutting plan, UConn was permitted to use 50 percent of its savings from buyouts to replace retirees. But administrators determined that to maintain academic quality and prevent classes from getting bigger, 70 percent replacement was necessary.

That determination should have been made well before the buyouts began. State budget cutters should have paid more attention to UConn's situation. Enrollment at the Storrs and branch campuses has increased from 14,454 in 1995 to 20,259 in 2004. Yet faculty has increased only from 1,068 to 1,082.

The state's $2.3 billion capital investment in its flagship university is at stake. An estimated 7 percent more high school graduates are electing to attend state schools since the commitment to improve campuses. It would be folly to compromise that reversal of the brain drain by draining the university's lifeblood, the quality of its teaching. Yet it is essential that the state's schools remain affordable.

Overall, the price of attending the university for in-state students remains competitive. Students still pay less to attend UConn than the universities of New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, Rutgers, Maryland and the State University of New York at Albany and Stony Brook. Still, at nearly $15,000 a year for Connecticut residents and nearly $27,000 for out-of-staters, the margin of affordability is shrinking. Without consistent budget support, too many students inevitably will be squeezed out.